Britons face carbon spotchecks

It's the price of 'one planet living'

Britons should be subjected to random carbon spotchecks and intensive surveillance of their diets, transport and waste disposal habits, says the Government's architecture and design quango in a new report today.

The word "monitoring" occurs 19 times in the 32-page publication by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). If the proposals in the report What Makes An Eco Town?are implemented few aspects of life will go unrecorded.

CABE says the strict monitoring is needed to ensure the carbon footprint of the eco-town dwellers remains at one-third of the British average, which is the requirement for what's called "one-planet living", the quango says.

Examples of monitoring include "the ecological footprint of the diet of 100 randomly selected residents", and the number of shops selling local produce. Waste disposal and transportion habits will also be scrutinized.

The Carbon Cult also wants to choose what you food you eat, and will carefully pre-select only the most righteous retailers. Veggies will be pleased to read that the report recommends "actively seeking retailers on site who will commit to supporting residents in reducing the ecological footprint of their food consumption, in particular providing a wide variety of healthy, low meat and dairy options."

One statistic that won't be recorded is the mortality rate from suicide caused by living in such a grimly regimented and obsessively monitored environment. Or maybe that's the plan. The Government proposes 15 such towns to be built for over 100,000 citizens.

An eco-town resident fails to reach the perimeter

As we have already reported, other eco-town restrictions include a 15mph speed limit for vehicles , and toilets that don't flush. Residents would also be "fined" for leaving the eco-town.

You can download the report from here - and it's well worth a read. It has the zeal of a Maoist revolutionary order, as written by the most anally-retentive bureaucrat who ever lived. ®